Attorneys: Robert L. Shannon, Jr.

Overview

Robert L. Shannon, Jr. is a Senior Partner. Mr. Shannon’s practice includes complex litigation, transportation, toxic exposure, professional liability litigation, banking matters, International Trade issues, products liability, and internal investigations. He has served as lead or co-counsel in a wide variety of complex matters including multidistrict litigation and class actions in both federal and state courts. He serves as National Trial Counsel to several clients. He has tried 44 cases to a jury with significant success.  Furthermore, Mr. Shannon has assumed the role of lead or trial counsel in approximately 52 complex or catastrophic cases outside of Georgia of which none resulted in an adverse verdict for the cases tried before a jury and very favorable resolution for those cases that settled. Mr. Shannon is licensed in Tennessee and Georgia but he has also appeared in matters in Florida, Louisiana, Arkansas, Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Illinois, and Pennsylvania.

Prior to attending law school, Mr. Shannon served in the U.S. Air Force from 1981-1988.  In 1988, he transferred to the Georgia Air National Guard. He currently is a Brigadier General and serves as the Vice Commander of the Georgia Air National Guard. General Shannon assists the commander in overseeing over $20 billion in assets, 3,000 men and women in two flying wings consisting of 17 JSTARS E-8s and 8 C-130H(2) aircraft, a Combat Readiness Training Center, Townsend Bombing Range, and six other geographically separated units around the State. General Shannon also oversees Strategic Planning and Long Range Initiatives. His previous assignments include Director of the Joint Staff for Joint Force Headquarters - Georgia where he oversaw the 400 person senior staff of the Georgia Army and Air National and the State Defense Force. 

He has completed the U.S. Northern Command Joint Task Force Commander’s Course; the Defense Support of Civil Authorities Executive Course; and the Leadership in Crisis Program at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.  He serves on the Air National Guard’s General Officer Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) Steering Council; the Air National Guard’s Strategic Planning Committee Steering Committee; and Vice Chair for Strategic Planning for the 14 States which comprise the Atlantic Region.  He was appointed by the Chief of the National Guard Bureau to serve on the National Guard Joint Diversity Council which develops policy recommendations on Diversity for the 464,900 members of the Army and Air National Guard. He has been interviewed by CNN, Fox News, and the Christian  Science Monitor on the use of the military in domestic emergencies. General Shannon has significant worldwide operational planning and deployment experience. General Shannon has deployed to over thirty countries in participation of combat, contingency, and training operations. He has also deployed in support of Customs, Coast Guard, and Drug Enforcement Agency counterdrug operations throughout the Caribbean and South America. He holds a Top Secret SCI clearance.

Professional and Community Service

In addition to his practice, Mr. Shannon has served as a Special Assistant Administrative Law Judge for the Office of State Administrative Hearings from 1997-2001. As an Administrative Law Judge, Mr. Shannon presided over regulatory disputes and appeals for the Georgia Department of Banking and Finance, the Commission on Equal Opportunity, the Board of Regents, and the Department of Medical Assistance. Mr. Shannon also serves as an Adjunct Professor with Georgia State University where from time to time he teaches graduate courses in employment law and ethics.

Mr. Shannon is active in leadership capacities in a number of professional and civic organizations. He was appointed by the Georgia Supreme Court to serve on the Unauthorized Practice of Law Committee; Past Chairman, Board of Directors for the Atlanta Business League; Member, Board of Governors for State Bar of Georgia; Past Chair of the Board of Trustees for the State Bar’s Client Security Trust Fund; member, Past President, Gate City Bar Association; Member, Board of Trustees for the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law in Washington, D.C.; Past Co-Chair of the State Bar of Georgia’s Diversity Program; Former District 5 Representative, University of Georgia’s Law School Association Council; Member, Fulton County Development Advisory Board, 1999-2001; Senator Max Cleland’s Judicial Advisory Panel, 2002; Former Board Member, Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation; Fellow, Lawyers Foundation of Georgia; Board of Directors, World Trade Center Atlanta and the Board of directors for Junior Achievement. He is a member of the Gate City Bar Association, Hispanic Bar Association, National Bar Association, American Bar Association and the Atlanta Bar Association, Defense Research Institute, and Lawyer Pilot Bar. From 1996- 2003, he served as an Air Force Academy Liaison Officer for the State of Georgia. From 2005 to 2011, the Atlanta Business Chronicle named him to its list of Who’s Who in the Law in Atlanta. Also, in 2010 he was named as one of Georgia Trend magazine’s “Legal Elite.” Mr. Shannon is a pilot.

Mr. Shannon has contributed a significant amount of time in pro bono projects including:

• Moreland Ave Battered Women’s shelter;
• Juvenile Truancy Project;
• Cobb Diversion Program; Saturday Lawyer; and
• The Legal Clinic for the Homeless.

He has spoken to high school students and at youth programs on over 100 occasions.

Practice Areas

Transactional

Professional Negligence / Non Medical and Fiduciary

Employment

International Trade

(Practice Group Leader)

International

Construction

Environmental, Mass Torts & Land Use

Professional Negligence / Medical Malpractice

Bankruptcy & Creditors’ Rights

Transportation

Government Contracting

Products Liability